1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber aligning device used for optically aligning butt jointed fibers such as mechanically spliced fibers, and relates also to an optical aligner assembly using the aligning device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, optical fiber aligners are designed to provide an optical connection by abutting two optical fibers end-to-end, and securing the butted fibers within one aligner housing.
There are three main methods for aligning the fibers in the conventional optical aligners, they are: (1) a fine hollow tube (hereinbelow referred to as microcapillary tube) is used to insert one fiber from each end to abut the ends of two fibers; (2) a positioning groove is used to abut the ends of two fibers; and (3) the centers of three precision rods or three precision spheres are used to align two fibers at their centers. The conventional optical fiber aligner utilizes the aligning device to align, abut the ends, and the fibers are then fixed in place by attaching the fibers to the device using an adhesive or some mechanical device.
However, such fiber aligners are not reusable because the aligned optical fibers are not removable, so that the fibers cannot be disconnected from or reconnected in the aligner housing, and therefore, the conventional aligners have been deemed to be unsatisfactory because they cannot be used effectively for connecting or switching an optical circuit.
Furthermore, the task of aligning a pair of fibers along their optical axes requires extreme precision and the productivity was low. For example, it is necessary to carry out the work of inserting the fibers into a capillary tube under an optical microscope, and consequently, the assembly work was time consuming. Therefore, there has been a demand for developing optical fiber aligners and fiber aligning devices which permit improved efficiency in making and altering optical connections, particularly in the field work.
To resolve such problems of productivity, an alternative might be to insert the fibers through a lower precision guide groove or microcapillary tube, however, in many cases, the change in the alignment precision for the aligning device and the insertion facilitator is too sudden, thus causing the fibers to bind in the aligner to impede smooth entry of the fibers, and it was judged that such a device would be unsatisfactory for practical purposes.